Yes.

Yep, yes, yeah.

Tomorrow's Thought

Le Tes

Mark Tessi is an old EBNY chum with some sort of doer's history.  

Can. Not. Wait.

Susan Casey's The Wave

Apologies to whoever's photo this is, I can't remember where I got it, but it is rad, thanks.

I nearly tripped over it coming out of my son's kung fu class.  It was in a box with some other books near the stairs and it caught my eye.  Everyone and anyone who finds out I'm a surfer (my emphasis, and maybe theirs)(likely with different emphasis) and has read this book asks me immediately if I've read it.  So frankly I've been wanting to. I was a little leery to pull out a book from a box on the street, I've heard bed bugs hide in paper, but it was just so tantalizing, and it is a nice street really.  Not a bed bug street.  So I took it home, put the dust jacket in the trash and started to read it that night.  I got about a chapter and a half, then skimmed a few more, and then put the book down not knowing exactly what I was feeling. I didn't pick the book back up.  Then today I read David Morris' book review in this Surfer's Journal and he sums it up.  He sums up quite a bit actually.   If you've got the issue, take a look.  If you're in a shop and they've got it, slyly take a look.  Erudite stuff from the surfy standpoint, hitting the target right in the middle

Moantalk

Schmoantalk

Interesting. Check out the rad Mastastico chime in the comments section.

Fin Talk Via Korduroy

More on fins here. Check out #8.

Surf Art By Any Other Name

Particles & Waves opening in May at the Iliad Gallery

Movie at Harmony

Someone told us someone liked us.  We like them back.  Check out Harmony.

Aloha Thursday

Today's Other Thought

Keep Your Love Young

Today's Thought

Amos Vogel Respect

Surf Art By Any Other Name

Robert Pokorney

Lovelace Kickstarter Thing

While he does use the phrase "pay it forward" in here, it's still a worthy venture.

Holy Cow, There's This.

Bryan Soderlind in China

Also Happening

Info over at SMASH

Today's Thought

via Anibal Hernandez

Happening

Interknot

I recently started a Tumblr page. I did it for specific reasons, mostly having to do with making a visual argument for a lifestyle choice my wife and I were debating. I wanted to convey all the wonder and possibility making such a purchase could have. A little cheesy, maybe a touch over-reaching, the thing is basically a mood board, a style sheet that I'd present to my wife as if she were some client I was desperately trying to woo. Woo. Anyhow, the thing has turned into a bit of a time-waster, a bit of a mild obsession, and in the end I think it has helped do the job. We're in the process of making the purchase anyway. But I've stumbled upon some realizations having this bit of a digital pin board. First of all, it feels very much like my own bedroom wall I had as a teenager. Back then I'd stick up surfing posters and music posters just so. I'd hang up sporting gear, then thinly veiled drug paraphernalia, then photos of friends and girlfriends in particular fashion. Then maybe my friends would come over and maybe I'd feel proud of how good my room would look, or I'd feel stupid about how bad it'd look. All to say having this Tumblr page is just another foray into the trend towards the adolescentifation of middle age. What's more, as I peruse other blogs and tumblrs and do google image searches or stumble upon images from online news articles I find pictures on other people's digital bedroom walls the same as my own. As if this whole wide expansion of connective thought and correlative opportunity that we see as some kind of digital spring called the world wide internet is only serving to narrow our choices. Yes! You can look at surf stuff and fashion! Yes! You can find that old photo of your favorite soccer player and skateboarder! But they will be the same photos everyone else is seeing. And they'll likely be displayed the same way everyone else is displaying them. And someone is keen to watch it all happen, scoop up the representative rights to the concept and feed it to you in ever larger yet more pristine gulps. All to say, here is a great article my friend Beau sent through last night via Facebook. A great read.

Oldfield Lovely

Le Sabich just alerted me to this clip. And while it seems pretty long in the video tooth, I think it merits a repost here just for its sheer radness.

On Freesurfe®s.

This time of year, this time of life, always churns up a thousand and one debates about the quotidien balance of energy and focus.  Somewhere some time someone decided that life encompassed two entirely separate, but inter-working worlds called "Life" and "Work." Or someone didn't decide it, it just happened for a certain portion of the population and that population grew to encompass a majority of the world we are operating in.  I'm sure there's a great book on the history of that somewhere that I haven't read.  As this population of livethenworkthenlivethenworkers grew to current proportions, someone noticed that the enforcement of such strict guidelines needed to be mitigated somehow, dreaming up a counter-cultural movement attempting to shift things back into a holistic approach.  Life is work and work is life and we need to get back to those basics and live your dreams and live for today and follow your bliss and et cetera et cetera et cetera.  And most of us have grown up with that kind new propaganda floating around our brains.  Our system is based on the one which necessitates a sort of conceptual deification of the other which is then packaged by somebody else and sold back to someone else which makes that other person work even harder to get the goods.  It's all pretty insane-making.  In the end, thanks to the system, the people who are living the "good" holistic life depend on the people who lead the "bad" dualistic life to pay for their exploits.  All the time the dualists are trying to get to be the holists while the holists are stressing out that even they are not holistic enough. It's that same old story, if by old you mean a time frame of as-of-this-post-indeterminate-length.  Crazy times indeed, but have they ever been otherwise, or even better? Here is a picture of Chris Gentile working away on his laptop over at the Pilgrim shop.

CDM

There are a lot of nice ideas attempting to get worked out in this video. It's nice to see a little snatchet of footage of one surfer on a variety of boards. That's a good little lesson in style. And while the music isn't bad music, I turned it down to let my own tunes play over it all.

Right Said Fred

We float out in the water. Two rusty nails stuck to our nearly matching boards. It always feels pretty bad, those first few spring sessions. I mean, it feels great to be in the water, sure. There's that deep sigh of relief when it hits us how comfortable it is to be back in the ocean. But our surfing sucks and worse, there's that niggling asshole voice that comes in the echo chamber that keeps whining about how we didn't surf enough over the winter, that while we were nose down, trying to stay warm and be productive, all our friends were getting better at surfing while were were getting worse. And that's a sad thought, that thought "I am worse at surfing." And we argue back. We assert that we have to take care of the family, put a roof over our head, build our careers! And besides, the waves were crap this winter, and the few days that were good, well how the hell could we have planned for that? All of this bounces around bobbing between sets. And then we catch a wave and we suck. Granted, it's better than not catching the wave. And having a job is better than not having a job, and who wants a poke in the eye with a sharp stick? Sweet Jesus how high can we set our expectations? To make self deprecating matters look and sound even more ridiculous are these fine pieces of crafty engineering we are riding. See, because Tony and I have these Andreini Vaqueros we picked up last year. Yeah, it's like the official EBNY clubhouse fun board. And we dress the same in these black suits and bob up and down laughing at each others jokes. And we have the same job.  Like Mean Girls for hairy men. Except we're not mean. Well, Tony isn't. Maybe I'm mean.  But all we're talking about is how bad we've turned out as surfers approaching middle age. Approaching gently, from far off, sure, but approaching on a train that's going nowhere else. And we're talking about how great these boards are, and we're coming up with little dumb observations paddling out from each ride like "ooh, yeah, you know you really need to get it slotted in before it'll catch" and "this thing paddles great but you really need to let it do all the work." I mean if I weren't a super supporter of equality and if I weren't striving for a kind of respectful discourse, I would say without batting an eyelash that the whole thing sounds so "totally gay." But Fred Hemmings coulda told us that.  Not that the waves got over knee high today.

Surf Historians

We tend to pay really really great attention.  Really, really great.  And so when we peruse the "Surf Historians" section we notice all sorts of things.  Like we notice that certain surf blogs are now fashion blogs.  And certain other surf blogs no longer exist.  And even other surf blogs haven't posted in months. What we aren't good at is maintenance.  Doing the little things to keep it all fresh.  So maybe next week sometime if we find the time we'll go through the "Surf Historians" section with a fine tooth comb. We'll be weeding out blogs that don't post, don't exist, or have magically changed subject matter and authorship.
If you know of a good surfy blog that should be there, especially of the local East Coast variety, let us know...

Antonio & Toddy (and Angus, who is with us in our hearts.)

Mastic Johnny Makes Good

Starting on May 8th.

Soopah Bootiful

Neil Berenholz on the prime lens-work capturing a very rusty EBNY crew.

DPMRBR

Your in flight amenities will include exclusive showings of your choice of either Eat, Pray Love, The Help or Fried Green Tomatos.
Enjoy your flight.

Today's Thought: Wish You Were Here

Yes.

via Le Sabich

Thinking.

There Are Many Beautiful Things.

Kimou's latest purchase.

Nice.

Surfer Mag Makes Good

Some exceptional coverage.

Simmonsing Brooklyn

On the ride back from swim class this morning the son and I spotted some strange doings outside a warehouse in a quickly de-industrializing part of Brooklyn. I stopped by and chatted for a moment, finding out these enterprising souls had made a temporary shaping bay amidst all the cardboard boxes inside. Later on I showed the photo to Joey Clams and he smiled and said "Everyone wants to shape a Mini Simmons."

While I was Gone

While Ty Breuer and SMASH was out doing their linchpin work last night, I were at home treating myself to some long overdue family time.  And sneaking some peaks of my own.

A Hundred Miles To The End

Save Our Surf Archive

SOS became a militant movement overnight in late 1969 when plans were unveiled by the Army Corps of Engineers and the state to "broaden" the beaches of Waikiki. Using old fashioned political techniques- hand-bills, demonstrations and colorful presentations at public meetings - SOS quickly won the respect of the politicians and developed strong grassroots support in the community at large. The principal spokesman for the group was John Kelly. As described by Kelly in 1971, the SOS strategy rests on three simple concepts: respect the intelligence of the people, get the facts to them and help the people develop and action program.


via AAPC

Well, there's this.

Ty Breuer turned us onto this... looks fun.

Another April Fool

You know, you do your best right?  You try to work it all out, fit everything in, provide for your self, for your family, for your friends, for your co-workers, maybe even a little bit for the rest of humanity too.  You put the nose to the grindstone, get your hands dirty, just do it, blah blah blah.  And then, and then.  Then.  Then you get that photo from wifey via the magic of the digital wireless revolution taken moments before while you sit at your desk banging at those keys and she stands on the bluff above Swami's in that little garden nook, watching the swell roll in.

FIRDAY NIGHT SPECTACULAR

Wild Easter Surf

Welcome To Spring

Good Friday

A la Yaan Pessino and Josh Goldberg.

Yes.

Surf Art By Any Other Name

Alexander Girard